A Response to "Confession"

Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz has a chapter called "Confession." I highly recommend reading this chapter, it has a lot of truth in it. If you have read it, you might find this response interesting. If not, I encourage you to read it anyway, because it has a lot of basic truth to it.

My main response to the article is this:

Christianity often includes an extremely exclusive group of people that is unwilling to invite others in to join the circle. For some earthly reason, we see ourselves as better than non-Christians. While we know that we are better off in the long run because of our salvation, this gives us no reason to regard ourselves as more important than any non-believer. In fact, an opposite reaction should be taken towards non-Christians. We as Christians should consider these people the most important, because we have an obligation, coming directly from Christ’s words, to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This is a command given us by Christ himself prior to his ascension into Heaven. Jesus told his people what they were to do after he left, and we are to still live by that command today. This command to make disciples of all nations means Christians must reach out to non-Christians and help them in any way they can. This includes treating these non-Christians as if they were brothers and sisters. The Bible tells us to love our neighbor; it also tells us to love our enemies. All the non-Christians in this world must fall somewhere between the two, so love them all the same. So instead of thinking of non-Christians as a lower standard of people, we should respectfully and diligently seek out ways to bring them to saving faith. It becomes extremely hard to do that when the person has so many stereotypes about Christianity, some of which may be right, some of which may be wrong. These stereotypes make it even more important for a Christian to confess how he or she has wronged the non-Christian, so that the person will be more open to ideas and thoughts, rather than pushing them out of mind for all the wrong reasons. If a person believes that he or she is being told the truth by someone else, the two become much more effective in sharing ideas, emotions, and beliefs. It is the responsibility of the Christian to establish that trust and understanding between the two, for without it, the relationship will go nowhere, and the Christian will never fully be able to express his or her feelings.

A non-Christian often has the perspective that Christians are very exclusive, and that those who are not Christians are not allowed to come to saving faith and “join the club”. While we as Christians know that this view is inaccurate, it is not entirely their fault for thinking in such a way. Christians subconsciously tend to ostracize non-Christians when it comes to who people hang out with and who they can trust. This common belief of a non-Christian makes it so vital that we as Christians do what Don did. Otherwise, the non-believer will never realize that Christians do not intentionally disregard them, and that it is more natural than actual intention. If we as Christians are willing to confess that we have done things we regret, and that we have wronged non-believers in many ways, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we will find it much easier to break into the heart of a non-believer and make a path for God to make lasting changes in his or her life.